Tuesday January 24, 2012

I've Been Thinking:

Kommersant, an important Russian business newspaper, ran a story in yesterday's edition saying Russia just signed an arms deal with Syria.

According to the story in the paper Russia will deliver thirty-six YAK-130 fighter jets to Syria in exchange for $550 million.

There is great significance to this deal - and not because it is a large scale deal and might signify the revamping of the Syrian military.

It is so significant because it illustrates how neither Syrian leadership nor Russian leadership see the tensions in the Syrian street as having any long term impact on the future control and leadership of Bashar Assad in Syria.

The YAK-130 is a brand new plane. It is the fourth generation of YAK and only came on line in December 2009.

All in all, the most remarkable aspect of this deal is that it shows the West that the other side of the world has a very different view on events that we assume to be so very obvious.

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